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Violent attack on MARTA train

SouthJersey7

By SouthJersey7
in Atlanta

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Lady Celeste Burg

Lady Celeste

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How many people died last year on Atlanta's roads? How many died riding MARTA?

Doesn't matter, logic has no place in our society. Just read the blog on gas prices at ajc.com for proof.

I agree Ryan. It's about as bad as people who fear flying because planes have crashed before....yet they jump in a car with no thought of precentages.

This was a horrible event to take place. I am in no way going to sugarcoat what happened. Apparently there needs to be more security on that stretch of MARTA. Having said that, I'm not the most imposing woman and I have yet to feel fear when I have been on the MARTA trains. As a matter of fact, I would wager that almost everytime I have been on a North/South train, I have seen some type of armed personnel.

Was it gang related? Right now no one knows. Is it a frequent occurance on MARTA? I have never heard of such a thing till this incident. This was a group of ne'er-do-wells who just happen to be on MARTA. Will this open MARTA's eyes to that stretch of rail? I certainly hope so. I will go as far as to say this....most visitors to Atlanta will never even ride on that line. Perhaps that could have caused complacency with the higher ups. Will it be remedied? I think so. Am I now too afraid to ride MARTA? NO....and this coming from a woman who is 5'6 and 138 lbs...well maybe a little more, I still have some pregnancy fat to work off. :rolleyes:

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ironchapman City

ironchapman

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http://www.wsbtv.com/news/8009881/detail.html

Is this a common thing in Atlanta? I sure hope not. Sounds like police are unsure whether or not it's actually gang-related. They need to get on top of things in order to stop incidents like this

Thankfully, it isn't common. This is the first attack I've heard about in a long time. I had heard about this on the news for a while. It's very sad indeed.

The worst part is, like catlike said, it will only provide more fuel for that "MARTA's not safe. Let's not ride it." argument. Of course, we could just as easily point out that riding in cars (usually that type of person's preferred mode of transportation) puts one at risk for the same kinds of stiff. You could be robbed while you are shopping/working, you could risk being mugged if you park your car in the wrong area of town, and so on.

I'm sure most knowledgeable transit riders in any city known this type of stuff can happen and choose to take the risks much as a knowledgable driver knows of the possibility of crashing, being mugged, being robbed, etc.

What we need to do is get more security on MARTA. I'm not saying it's always dangerous to ride, but when things like this happen, you really need to consider these types of things.

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SouthJersey7 Whistle-Stop

SouthJersey7

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Good points about traffic being more dangerous than rail transit (A lot of people don't realize that!) and as for people whose opinion of MARTA would be negatively affected, well they're not the transit types to begin with. This really sounds to me like a freak incident and I sincerely doubt it will repeat. MARTA is obviously growing and encountering the problems other metros have dealt with for decades. You hear stories about street gangs hanging out in the subways of NY, London and other cities, hanging around the turnstiles and beating up on people unless they fork over some cash. But I think that's mostly in the past now. (and was probably mostly urban legend to begin with).

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dimebag1980 Metropolis

dimebag1980

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There will always be crime, and everyone knows it can happen anywhere. I'm not at all familiar with the area mentioned, but I do know that violence can occur anywhere. I recall a few years back, a woman here in Shreveport was kidnapped from a very busy Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot. She was taken to an ATM and forced to withdraw cash, then driven to a remote location where she was repeatedly raped and then killed. The case turned out to be a gang initiation where the kid wanting to join the gang was to kidnap a random woman anywhere in the city and rob, rape and kill her. This woman just happened to be the wife of a former cop as well.

This said, public transportation in most cities is still an extremely safe form of travel. One must remember that anything can happen anywhere and at any time, but in general, you're still safer riding public transportation than driving yourself through rush-hour traffic. I hate how the masses tend to get paranoid over a little bit of bad publicity regarding public transportation.

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Student Whistle-Stop

Student

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MARTA to me it really isn't that bad. They need to maintain the cleanliness of the Marta Stations (Five Points has Janitor problems) Most metro Atlantans feel that Public Transportation is for "less fortunate" people. Some think "Hey, I just got me a new car so what do I need to ride Marta for?" Well there's nothing wrong with cars (though the invention of the automobile spurred the developement of suburbs) but MARTA can take you from here to there with as little as $1.75. And as an added bonus, you wil never have to pay to park.

There's a tiny chance of being a victim of some gang attack on Marta Trains. But to prevent this, always ride in a train car with either many or no people in it. No one will attempt to pull anythin before a car full of people. If it's you and your friends, find a car with no one in it and just conversate. The train ride goes by very fast it's not 1/4 as bad as some say.

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Andrea Burg

Andrea

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... MARTA can take you from here to there with as little as $1.75.

The problem is, "here" and "there" are often not very close to where I need to be. In addition, getting to the departure station, and then getting to your destination after you've reached the arrival station, can be very complicated. If often requires traversing areas that are extremely unfriendly to pedestrians.

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Unifour Whistle-Stop

Unifour

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Well there's nothing wrong with cars (though the invention of the automobile spurred the developement of suburbs) but MARTA can take you from here to there with as little as $1.75.

A lot of people, particularly in Atlanta, think that the car caused suburbs, but that's not historically accurate. Suburbs have always existed. Even in the early days of cities when they were walled, residential areas and businesses grew up outside the wall. Roman leaders had palaces in the hills outside Rome and nearly all wealthy people had a "country villa." I guess all that environmentalist propaganda has sunk in for a lot of people (including me for a while). Suburbs have always existed, always will. Cities have always grown and decentralised, always will. Doesn't mean the death of urban life, though, as Atlanta is enjoying a great resurgence.

Still, back to the point, will this affect Marta's ranking as one of the 20 safest transit systems in the nation? It won the award for safest system a number of years, did it not? It's a shame that we have to have armed guards everywhere to protect us.

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